Miniature railway unit



June 10, 1947. is. SCHAFFAN, JR 2,422,047

MINIATURE RAILWAY UNIT Filed Nov. 27, 1944 I INVENTOR. 575.4%! ScfiWFAM/J;

Patented June 10, 1947 UNITED 1 STATES PATENT orator-1,

MINIATURE RAILWAY UNIT Stephan Schafian, Jr., Im'n-gton, N. J.

Application This invention relates to miniature railway units, and moreparticularly to the means for securing the rail members thereof to thecross tie units.

Miniature railways have become a very popular hobby. To those who enjoythe construction and use of such units it is important to obtain asfaithful a reproduction of the full-scale railway system as possible. Itis customary to attempt to faithfully reproduce precise details. In thisart, many expedients have been proposed and resorted to, as is evidentby the number of patents issued, with th'e objective of simulatingworkmanlike track systems. In miniature railway track construction, adeviation which, in a full scale system, might well be ignored, becomesobvious to the eye and may indeed result in a glaringly improper spacingof the rails or in a poor alignment of the cross ties and rails.

By the use of the unit of my invention, it is possible to align therails in accurately spaced relation and to space the ties in preciselythe correct spaced relation to each other and at precisely aperpendicular alignment with the axis to the rails so that the finishedproduct is neat and represents an accurate simulation of the full scalerailway units.

These and other advantageous objects, which will later appear, areaccomplished by the simple and practical construction, combination andarrangement of parts hereinafter described and exhibited in theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a pair of railway units constructed inaccordance with my invention,

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of a railway track section embodying saidunits,

Fig. 3 is a top plan view partly fragmentary, of the railway tracksection shown in Fig. 2, with parts broken away, removed and extendedfor the sake of clarity,

Fig. 4 represents a transverse, vertical sectional view taken on line4--4 of Fig. 2, in the direction of the arrows.

As shown in the drawings, the railway track unit of 'my inventioncomprises a, bar provided with laterally depending fingers II, the endsl2 of which are preferably upturned at right angles to the axis of thebar. The fingers II are arranged longitudinally along the axis of thebar r Ill in predetermined spaced relation for a purpose presentlydescribed.

The bar ID of my invention is preferably used in conjunction with a likebar or unit Ilia, each of the bars I I] and Illa, being adapted to holdone rail member as will presently appear.

The fingers [2 of the bars l0 are adapted to be passed through thcross-tie units l3, the latter being either imperforate, as indicated bythe cross-tie l3a in Fig. 3, in which case the fingers November 27,1944; Serial no. 565,266

. 2 II are forced through the material of the tie, or being providedwith apertures H for the reception of said fingers, illustrated by thecrosstie l3 in Fig. 3.

It will be apparent that as the fingers l2 are arranged on the bars inspaced longitudinal arrangement, when the fingers are forced through thecross-ties, the latter will thereby be aligned in accurately spacedrelation as shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

The fingers l2 define a guide channel for the reception of the railmembers 16, which may be positioned thereon as shown in Fig. 3; then bysimply clinching the fingers l2 upon the rails I6, the bars l 0, railties l 3, and rails I6 may be united with the parts maintained inaccurately spaced, aligned, arrangement.

The rail unit of my invention may be fixed to cross-ties in any desiredor convenient manner within th'e scope of this invention.

The bars HI and Illa may be made of any suitable material, such as byblanking the same out of their flat steel, and then turning the ends Hof the fingers upwardly, the final operation of clinching the fingers [2over the rails I6 being performed in a simple manner, as by the use of atool superimposed over the rails and having tapered surfaces, to clinchthe fingers I! thereover as shown in Fig. 4. The operation may be formedmanually or by machine.

Any suitable material other than steel may be used for the constructionof the railway unit of my invention, and the unit may likewise be formedby a molding process or in any other operation found convenient for thatpurpose. If it is desired to manufacture the railway track unit shown inFig. 2 as a complete unit by machine, this can readily be done byfollowing up the blanking and bending operations of the bar members withan operation in which the crossties are superimposed thereon and therails positioned thereon, and the fingers l2 finally clinched down onthe rails.

It will also be apparent that other forms of tie structures may also beused within the scope of this invention. For example, said ties mighthave connecting means to automatically space the same; this featurewould be unnecessary as the construction. of this invention provides theautomatic self-aligning feature above set forth.

Where it is desired to provide circular or curve trackage, that end maybe attained by transversely cutting the bar II] or Illa which is toreceive the rail whichwill describe the larger or outside diameter orare of the curve, and bending the rails to the desired are or curve, thebars 10 and Ilia then readily conforming to the bending operation.

Having thus described my invention what I bent upwardly and disposed atright angles to the plane of the bar, cross ties positioned across thespaced bars and the respective pairs of aligned fingers, the upwardlydisposed ends of the fingers projecting through the cross ties andextending thereabove, rails seated on said cross ties above the bars,the projecting upper ends of the fingers being clenched over the baseportions 15 2,188,394

of the rails to unite the parts in accurately spaced and alignedarrangement.

STEPHAN SCHAFFAN, JR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,133,500 Donnelley Oct. 18, 19382,161,562 Day June 6, 1939 2,186,186 Weinreich Jan. 9, 1940 Tyler Jan.30, 1940

